CASE STUDY
Dynamic Course Coverage with Future LearnFuture Learn is a global learning platform that delivers top online courses from the world's leading universities and brands.
June 19, 2023
+17%Target enrolments
Propel services used
Campaign Automation| Retail Automation| Tech
Team members involved
Alicia ProtheroeClient Success Director
Stef SimpsonSenior Performance Consultant
Alison GarePerformance Consultant
The Challenge
Over 1,000 coursesFuture Learn pride themselves on offering courses across a wide-ranging selection of topics and different fields. As such, they have an inventory of courses totaling well over a thousand, with each one requiring support through paid search channels.
Managing InventoryAll of Future Learn's courses are provided by a range of different education partners. This means that there isn't a consistent calendar of course start dates, making it difficult to keep on top of enabling and pausing course campaigns in line with course start dates.
Course-Specific TermsDue to the specialised nature of the majority of the courses, the most relevant search terms for them tended to be relatively niche and long tail. This, combined with the sheer volume of courses, made it difficult to build strongly targeted campaigns at scale.
The ApproachOur approach was to build a solution that would enable us to provide coverage across all courses, with specific search coverage that would automatically turn campaigns on and off based on start dates.
API Connection
Using our technology, we built a real time connection to the Future Learn CMS that would allow us to collect all course titles, course URLs and course start dates. This data was then collected into a Google Cloud instance on a daily basis and sorted into a readable table for later use.
DSA-based Structure
We then used the DSA campaign type to build course-specific campaigns around the course URLs. The DSA type triggered ads for searches that were related to the content of the page (i.e. course title, course provider), ensuring that we could cover specific searches per course.
Auto Status Change
We then built a second API connection from Google Cloud through to Google Ads. This would review the course start dates on a daily basis and automatically pause campaigns the day before that course was due to start. This prevented any wasted spend on closed courses.
The Results
Target enrolments
+17%Exceed targets
Providing coverage across all courses allowed us to maximise our demand capture, allowing us to achieve well over the target enrolments given to us by the business.
Reduction in Cost Per Enrolment
-30%Reduced costs
The automated inventory management and DSA approach helped us to drive a cost per enrolment that was well under target and an improvement on previous performance.
Under budgets to hit target
-18%Budget savings
We managed to exceed our targets and also come in under the budget that we had been set for our activity. We were able to reinvest this budget in test & learn activity.
Share via
Taking the bold step to switch agencies is riskyWe’re so confident you won’t regret it, we offer a money back guarantee if you’re not happy with the first 3-months of service.
“Easy to work with, proactive and just bloody good.”Abcam, Global Head of Marketing
“An absolutely vital arm to our marketing department.”77 Diamonds, Director of Operations
“Working with Propel has been extremely beneficial.”Sigma Sports, Head of Performance Marketing